Podcast

The Ongoing History of Podcasting

[A post on the history of podcasting from Shane Alexander, a compatriot from my other life at Geeks & Beats which, yes, does come with a podcast.  Season three starts this week! – AC]

August 13, 2004 was the day former MTV VJ, Adam Curry recorded a show while driving to the Netherlands. “Well, good morning everybody, and welcome to the Daily Source Code”, were Curry’s first mutterings. “Thank you very much for taking time to download that MP3 file”, he continued, “Some of  you may have received it overnight as an enclosure in your aggregator in that case, thanks for subscribing.”While Daily Source Code plays an important landmark in the history of podcasting, it wasn’t the first podcast to ever be recorded. That honour goes to ChristopherLynton, who recorded a show just over a year earlier. Still, Daily Source Code, which continues to air in podcast and public radioform,  was done to recorded in order to aid  Cury’s first steps into software development. This experiment got us one of the first “podcatchers,”   iPodder,As a lifelong radio nut, who spent much of my teenage years around many radio studios in Toronto, when I first heard about the idea of being able to broadcast from my basement with no big brother monitoring my every word, I just had to give it a try. After a few attempts, I finally found my niche a few years ago when i started the Shane Alexander Show – something I did while doing some freelance work. Around that time, other local podcasts started to appear and catch on.  Humble and Fred Radio,  started a trend for local unemployed radio giants to be able to get out and play with unadulterated formats.

Like with any new medium, it needs work to build. Howard and Fred did it. I even did it. And so did Curry. Along with software developer, RRS evangelist and head of popular blog, Radio Userland, Daee Winter, the duo worked for four years to get subscription and automatic file downloads of video and audio content to be gained easy by the public.

Continue reading. And make sure you watch this classic clip.  Someone must have got fired over this.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39690 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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